Protesters displaying a banner demanding that Madam Johansen quit
August 31, 2015 By Sahr Morris Jr.
Football stakeholders and fans on Saturday (August 29) staged a big demonstration at the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) secretariat, Kingtom, calling on Madam Isha Johansen and her executive to step down.
The protest was followed up with another at the Barmoi Hotel, where the world football governing body, FIFA representatives – Primo Corvaro and Kwesi Nyantakyi – were meeting with the seven-man committee set up by President Koroma to help identify genuine football delegates for the forthcoming SLFA congress.
According to onlookers, the stakeholders took along several locks to close the main gates to the FA secretariat and the Football Academy in a bid to prevent Madam Johansen and her executive from gaining entrance into the facilities.
However, the intervention of police personnel helped to quell down what could have been a very chaotic atmosphere at the football academy.
The protest came just a day after the meeting between the FIFA representatives and the seven-man committee ended in a deadlock as representatives of the football stakeholders kicked against a suggestion by the FIFA reps to allow Madam Johansen complete her remaining two years in office.
This is not the first time Corvaro has witnessed protest by stakeholders and football fans in the country as in September 2013, he was attacked by a cross-section of football stakeholders who were unhappy with his decision to set-up an interim Normalization Committee while they were hoping that he would have reversed the Minister of Sports, Paul Kamara’s decision to form a Normalization Committee.